Professor Byron Warnken and Professor Elizabeth
Samuels
University of Baltimore School
of Law
| The written decision in a case is called the opinion of the court,
and when more than one judge has heard the case, the decision is usually
written for the court by one of the judges, whose name appears at the beginning
of the opinion. Separate opinions may be concurring or dissenting
opinions. A concurring opinion agrees with the disposition of the
case, i.e. whether to affirm or reverse, but differs with the majority's
reasoning. If the opinion of the court is agreed upon and joined
in by a majority, it is called the majority opinion and is binding in future
cases. The existence of one or more separate concurring opinions
does not affect whether the reasoning will be binding in subsequent cases.
If there is any common ground on which a majority agree, then, as to that
position, the opinion is a majority opinion and is the law. But when
the opinion of the court is only a plurality opinion, that is, when a majority
has concurred in the result only but not in the reasoning, then the reasoning
of the plurality is not binding in future cases.
A dissenting opinion disagrees with the disposition of the case as well as with the reasoning. Sometimes separate opinions concur in part and dissent in part. Almost every U.S. Supreme Court case has one or more separate opinions. . . . A per curiam opinion is an opinion of the court with no author identified. Memorandum opinions are opinions that provide a disposition of the case on the merits but with little or no analysis, i.e. no reasoning. |